Page 76 of Dark Wolf Soul
I move away so I can’t hear them just in case my patience snaps and I decide to break one of their very expensive noses.
Across the crowded rooftop, Grey nods at whatever his father is saying to him. The older man’s shoulders are squared, and Grey’s expression is tight, but otherwise, they remain civil enough in front of the guests. Still, I’m not interested in speaking to the elder Diavolo, no matter how good his manners are tonight.
Scanning the other guests, I shift a little, and my dress twinkles brightly with the slight movement. The gown Grey insisted on is beautiful and ostentatious to the point of discomfort.
Just then, Mia walks up. “Are you okay?”
“Fine, why?”
She arches a brow, clearly not buying my answer. “You look like you ate something terrible.”
“It’s not the food,” I tell her.
“Then what—?”
“This dress.”
“It’s gorgeous.”
“I look like a disco ball,” I tell her, gesturing to my dress. “I’m going to walk across the room, and someone’s going to have a stroke.”
Mia laughs. “So dramatic.”
I raise my brows at that. “You guys will literally kill someone over a girl you’ve never met, and you think I’m dramatic?”
“Fair,” she admits with a pout. “But it’s not just about you. I mean, look around. What do you see?”
“Champagne. Expensive clothes I could never afford. A level of self-involvement I couldn’t reach if I tried.”
“Don’t forget self-importance,” she adds wryly.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Ramsey says, joining us on my other side with a drink in his hand. “What’s wrong with being important?”
I glance over, appreciating the way he fills out a suit. They’re all gorgeous, in fact. Mia with her black gown that hangs from her shoulders from one slanted strap, her throat and ears dripping in diamonds. Dutch standing not far away with his shirt sleeves rolled to the forearms, revealing the tattoos wrapping around his arms like snakes. Razor and Crow sit at a table in the back with heads bent close. They’ve already shucked their jackets and bow ties, leaving the top few buttons of their shirts open to reveal smooth skin and sharply angled chests beneath.
The general’s children are beautiful, every single one.
Beautiful and deadly.
But it’s Grey who takes my breath away.
“Lexi’s worried she’ll hurt someone in that dress,” Mia tells him.
Ramsey scoffs. “She’s going to break every heart in this room the moment they realize she’s taken.”
He winks.
Mia snickers, eyes narrowing even as she manages to keep her demure smile in place. “Most of the assholes in this room deserve to be hurt anyway.”
While the two of them continue to banter, I scan the guests until my gaze lands on Grey. He’s near the bar, talking to a woman I don’t know. She’s elegant in a navy-blue gown that hugs her slender frame and understated jewelry that lets her mature beauty shine.
Jealousy streaks through me. Not only at the sight of him talking to another woman but at the idea that he has this whole life here with family and friends he’s known forever, and I have … nothing.
No history, no roots. No future.
“You can stop shooting daggers, you know.” Mia’s voice snaps me out of my intense study, and I look over at her. “That’s his mother.”
“I wasn’t—”
